Burgers and books will decorate the week that lies ahead.
Monday
The new trading week kicks off with an Egg McMuffin and McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) reporting. The world's largest restaurant chain isn't feeling the recessionary pinch. It was one of the few consumer-discretionary stocks to close higher in 2008. Analysts see the company posting fourth-quarter earnings of $0.83 a share on Monday, 14% ahead of last year's showing.
Tuesday
Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) checks in on Tuesday. The beleaguered dot-com has a new CEO, so expect the market to give the stock a mulligan for what should be a soft quarter and react to what it hears out of Carol Bartz. If you want to play a drinking game during the call, take a shot whenever an analyst mentions Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
Wednesday
A few "show me" companies will be stepping up on Wednesday with Legg Mason (NYSE:LM) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) on the block. Legg Mason will have to prove to investors that it can overcome the abysmal performance of key mutual funds in 2008. Starbucks needs to show the market that it can eventually get back to posting positive comps again.
Thursday
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has already let the market know that it had a record holiday period. Third-party research confirms that Amazon was decking the halls in style last month. Now it's time to see how much of that activity survived on the way to the bottom line. Analysts aren't too optimistic, projecting a profit of $0.39 a share (when it earned $0.48 a share a year ago).
Friday
Before you head out for the weekend, ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) will pull in for its quarterly refueling. Wall Street sees a dip in profitability after the sharp drop in oil during the period. Let's see if it also replaces its wiper blades as it peeks out into the future.
Until next week, I remain,
Rick Munarriz
